Packman

I am FL resident and currently have my FW insured with Progressive. I have been considering selling the FW and getting an older Class A pusher. I had heard that insurance is more, so I thought I'd get a quote on a theoretical rig. For a 2007 tiffin at $70k, the quote was over twice what I pay for the truck and FW. What do you pay for a class A, Full time? Thanks - Rick

We have a stationary place in the mountains of VA for the summers. On the road, I use Visible connected to a modem for internet with few problems. I also have a Verizon Jet Pack (post paid 30GB). I also have a weboost with a directional antenna. First, the jetpack works fine, being able to maintain a 10-20mbps down speed most of the time. The only problem is the data limit. The Visible connection is where it gets weird. I have a Blade A7 connected to a modem via usb cable and Network Cell Info Lite. The phone without the weboost wants to go to band 13. The signal strength is good, showing between -70 to -85 dBs, but can only transfer <1mbps down and around 4 up. Using the weboost and depending on the direction of the antenna, I can most of the time get the phone to switch to band 4. While the Network Cell Info Lite shows less than stellar speed, somewhere around -115 dBs, the transfer rate, is 6-8 mbps, which is fast enough for me to stream and I'm happy with that. The problem is, I can't keep it on band 4. Sometimes I have success by rebooting everything. Sometimes I have success by trying to force a channel change from the maintenance keyboard (*#*#4636#*#*), but there are times when nothing works. I would be happy if I could keep it on band 4 or if I could get sufficient data on the jetpack. Any suggestions appreciated. Rick

KOA Fancy Gap / Blue Ridge Parkway is open. In Virginia / NC border. Hope to see some of y'all!

I contacted a State Farm agent in Florida. When I told them I was full timer, they told me they can't insure me at all.

More interesting info: So, I did get a Visible phone (ZTE Blade) and service. With a android, I know exactly what signal strength I'm getting. At first it was a bust because the router I was using only connected via wireless to the phone. Once I traded the router for one that connects via usb tether, vola, I have a good enough signal to stream to my Roku. With the Iphone, I don't know any way to know what band it's using, but I'm please with the Visible setup now. Life on the road!

I did call them and still couldn't determine how they do it. I bit the bullet and made the trip to Green Cove Springs today. With an appointment they handle everything at once and are very used to doing full time RV'ers. I can't recommend enough the Clay county office and mail service in Green Cove Springs.

I am very tempted to try the Visible route with a cheap phone to use for a router.

I made that point many times to no avail! I have iphone xs.

And yes, while my conversations with tech support was interesting, very little, if any results were accomplished! First level support had me do things like reset the network settings, the second level tech determined that I'm five miles from the nearest tower and that my booster needed to be registered. He basically offered two reasons: the difference in the jetpack and the phones is because the phones are processing as well as transmitting data. Then when looked at my location on sat view - "That explains it, you are surrounded by miles and miles of trees!" Again, results for my hour plus on the phone, about the same! I'm here for another month, guess I'll live with it 'till then.

Thanks for that! I completely forgot that I do have one non-ios device! I'm at -96dbm! I see no reason why my phones shouldn't at work at that signal strength! Appreciate the replies!

I would love to find a ios app that gives actual signal strength. There seem to be plenty android apps (such as NSL) that do that, but I've yet to find one on ios. I know how to invoke the diagnostic screen in ios, but when on the phone with weboost, I was advised that the measures in that are also not reliable. Yes I frequently reboot the phone at the first suspect of trouble. I also renew the lease on the wifi connection frequently. My next stop is at the verizon store, since their tech support phone number takes you to a chat. I also know store personnel have varying levels of expertise on phone settings. We'll see!

Postpaid Jetpack only include 15gb of LTE data, where the phone gets unlimited.

We are at a campground where the cell service it terrible. We have a weboost and get between two and three bars most of the time. The speed test is between 1-2 mbs down. I have verizon post paid phones with a jetpack add on. While I can do most everything in need while surfing on the jetpack, using the phones I can hardly do anything. They phones work intermittently when I can connect to the cg wifi and it's working properly (rarely). My logic says that if I can surf on the computer using the jetpack, I should be able to turn the wifi off on the phones and get the same results. I have iphone xs. As always - thanks! Rick

Is anyone familiar with how Sumter Co registers full timers? Our resident mail service is in Clay county and on our trip to convert our registrations and drivers licenses, we were missing a document and couldn't get it don'e. My understanding from the Clay Co DMV rep, is they register the fifth wheel first, using the mail service address and then everything else has the tag number of the FW as the residence and the mailing service as the mailing address. She said all other DMV will mess it up. My problem is, Green Cove Springs is 2-1/2 hours away and Bushnell is 20 minutes. If Bushnell does it the way Green Cove Springs does, I can save myself the better part of a day. Appreciate all the advice of this group. Rick

When I joined Escapees, I too planned on using their mail service and there address for domicile purposes. As I dug deeper into how the mail worked between Texas and Florida, that didn't exactly make sense to me. Based on that, I chose a different mail service. Now I'm staying in Bushnell, but plan to travel to Clay county to do all the DMV stuff.